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Warhammer 40,000 Fanon Wiki:How to create a Fanon Space Marine Chapter
This is a guide for those who wish to create their own Fanon Space Marine Chapter. As anyone who has ever decided to create their own Chapter knows, the hardest part is coming up with something original, insightful, with characterization and hasn't been done already a million times before. Below will be some tips of what to do and not to do, when creating a canon-friendly Space Marine Chapter, and hopefully help avoid the pitfalls and cliches that often plague many fanon-based Chapters. Before Beginning To begin, please ensure that you have read rules and the Quality Control Policy. These will give you an understanding about what you can and cannot write about when creating a Fanon Space Marine Chapter. When creating a Space Marine Chapter, be sure to utilise the Space Marine Chapter Infobox in order to keep your article uniform with other Space Marine Chapter pages. Also be sure to browse around this wiki, as there are already a lot of Chapters that have been created. There might be one that is similar to the one you had in mind to create. Though this is unfortunate, try to ensure that you create something unique and original, as this will avoid problems with being accused of plagiarization. To quickly access the location of the Space Marine Chapters already listed on this wiki, please be sure to browse the Space Marine Chapters category. Before beginning, there are two primary rules that you always want to adhere to when creating your own Space Marine Chapter: *'Originality' - The most important aspect when creating a Space Marine Chapter is being original. There are many ways in which to draw inspiration; books, movies, a certain time period in history or even another culture (both fiction or non-fiction). Remember, you never want to copy another person's idea wholesale - try to add something unique or put some kind of twist on it. By being innovative, there is no telling what you might be able to come up with. The end result may end up surprising you and surpassing all your expectations! When in doubt, try, try and try again! The Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes can display a high degree of variety, despite all using the same range of arms, armour and equipment. In many cases the differences are largely superficial, especially in the case of Chapter heraldry. The most divergent of Chapters are often those that draw heavily on the culture of the world or worlds they recruit from, inheriting a broad range of highly idiosyncratic traditions and practices. Given that the Imperium's peoples range from barbaric primitives living in huts made from the skin and bones of their defeated enemies, to effete nobles existing in undreamed-of luxury high atop glittering hive spires, this variation is perhaps inevitable. *'Acceptance of criticism and the willingness to make revisions' - Another important thing to remember is that when you create your own Space Marine Chapter, expect feedback. After all, this is a wiki that is full of those who love this hobby, and by sharing your unique take and vision on what a Space Marine Chapter could be, your able to share your ideas and unique vision with other users who might be struggling to come up with something of their own. By sharing your work, you will receive many different viewpoints and constructive critiques that will help you fine-tune your overall vision for your Chapter. It's entirely up to you what you take away from the advice offered by other users, but remember, it doesn't hurt to be willing to at least consider some of the ideas generated by the community. Most users are just trying to help by providing feedback, but by the same token, it should be expected that anyone who does provide such feedback, to make an effort to provide constructive criticism rather than simply dismissing an author's idea out-of-hand or labeling their ideas as being poorly conceived or worthless. We all understand that your Fanon Space Marine Chapter is precious to you, and no one likes to receive negative feedback. But remember, we've all been in the same situation. It's important to ensure that you don't get stuck on an idea that has stagnated long after its potential has faded. There's nothing wrong with taking a step back, or even going back to the drawing board, and abandoning the original idea for something better. This time away can help you gain perspective while you think things over and eventually you can come back at a later date. You can always use your original idea for a future Fanon Space Marine Chapter article. A well-written Chapter tends to grow as you write, taking on a life all it's own, so don't be afraid to let it happen. Chapter What exactly is a Space Marine Chapter? A Chapter is a completely autonomous military unit made up of one thousand of the superhuman warriors known as Space Marines or Astartes and their related vehicles, starships and support personnel. Each Chapter serves collectively with the others of its kind as part of the Imperium of Man's Adeptus Astartes. Every Chapter is entirely autonomous from every other Adepta of the Imperium, including the Inquisition, and takes its orders only from the High Lords of Terra themselves. Most Chapters have feudal title to an entire planet of the Imperium which serves as its Chapter homeworld or to a large fleet of powerful and massive starships that serves as a mobile headquarters if the Chapter is fleet-based. ''Codex'' and Non-''Codex'' Chapters The Chapters that rigidly follow the word of the Codex Astartes are sometimes referred to as "Codex-compliant Chapters" or even simply "Codex Chapters." These Space Marines adhere to the Codex as the model for their organization, identification markings and tactical doctrine. Chapters such as the Black Consuls, Genesis Chapter, Hammers of Dorn, Novamarines, and the Red Scorpions are strong examples of those Chapters that vehemently follow the dictates of Guilliman's treatise to the letter. Many Chapters, however, do not adhere so rigidly to the Codex patterns laid down for the organisation or other processes. These Chapters, known as "Non-Codex Compliant" or "Non-Codex" Chapters, are further shaped by their home worlds or the personality of their Primarch, while still maintaining Codex-compliant in other ways. For examples Chapters such as the Blood Angels, Dark Angels, Space Wolves and White Scars utilise different organisational structures, idiosyncratic terminology, specialised ranks, as well as maintaining long-ingrained traditions of their own individual cultures. It has never been decreed necessary by the Adeptus Terra to enforce the tenets of the Codex absolutely, as it is highly doubtful that it ever could be done. However, with subsequent Foundings, the High Lords of Terra have always favored the Ultramarines' gene-seed and created many new Codex Chapters from their proud lineage. With the passage of time, some of these Chapters have subsequently strayed from the strict letter of the Codex, introducing new variations but remaining broadly faithful to the principles laid down by Roboute Guilliman nearly ten millennia earlier. Origins The first thing when writing about your Chapter is to determine why and when were they created? Chapters are established at the order of the High Lords of Terra, but the process by which the order comes about is a subject discussed only within the sealed chambers of the Senatorum Imperialis. It is likely that many Chapters have been created with a specific role in mind, whilst others have been founded due to a general increase in the activities of the Emperor's numerous enemies. Why Was It Founded? Chapter Size During the Great Crusade in the late 30th Millennium, the Space Marines were originally organised into 20 Legions each of which was further divided into companies. The XIII Legion XIIIth Legion], the Ultramarines, led by Roboute Guilliman, became the largest of all the Astartes Legions as a result of Guilliman's tactical mastery and a steady flow of new recruits from the Realm of Ultramar. The Ultramarines became so large, growing to a size that included over 100,000 Astartes, that a new, larger unit of division, the Chapter, was created to better organise the XIIIth Legion's forces. These Chapters (alternatively designated as Great Companies, Harrows, Millennials, etc.) were originally composed of roughly 1,000 line Legionaries, but as the Legions grew, this number began to vary substantially by Legion, and also through the vicissitudes of war and the availability of replacement recruits. At the time of the outbreak of the Horus Heresy in the early 31st Millennium, the Ultramarines Legion was divided into twenty Chapters, each composed of ten companies, with each company composed of roughly 1,000 Astartes. Following the end of the Heresy, Guilliman, as the new Lord Commander of the Imperium, ordered during the event known as the Second Founding that the remaining Loyalist Space Marine Legions be divided and re-organized into smaller one-thousand Astartes Chapters, to ensure that no future rebel such as Horus Lupercal could gain control of such a large and power military unit as a Space Marine Legion again. Newly formed Chapters created at this time that were carved out of the remaining 9 Loyalist Legions became known as Successor Chapters. As a result of this change in organisation, the Space Marines' military purpose changed as well. Where the Space Marine Legions had once served as the Imperium's primary frontline military forces, that role was given over to the newly created Imperial Guard, which had been created from the remains of the Imperial Army in the wake of the Heresy. The Imperial Army had been used primarily as a reserve force of garrison troops during the Great Crusade, but its successor would now bear the primary burden of the Imperium's defence. The Space Marine Chapters were now intended to primarily serve as highly mobile planetary assault and special forces troops, who would be deployed only for the toughest missions confronting the Imperium for which the forces of the Imperial Guard were simply insufficient One of the few notable exceptions to the typical "1,000 Astartes only" rule, would be the Black Templars Chapter. The only reason this has been permitted is due to the fact that most people outside the Chapter's hierarchy are clueless to the Black Templars actual size. It is said that only the High Marshal has any idea of the Black Templars' full numbers, but it is rumoured in the Inquisition that they actually number close to 6,000 Space Marines. That would make them nearly as large as some of the original First Founding Space Marine Legions after the terrible losses of the Horus Heresy, and means that the Black Templars are one of only three Chapters of Astartes (the others being the Space Wolves and the Grey Knights) thought to violate the 1,000 Space Marines to a Chapter limitation as proscribed by the Codex Astartes. Such a force united would be nigh unstoppable. The potential size of the Black Templars has resulted in close scrutiny by some of the more Puritan members of the Inquisition. Each Space Marine Chapter is limited to a strength of approximately 1,000 Astartes by ancient tradition, so that no one man can ever again command enough power to start another successful rebellion against the Emperor. The Chapter's history of zealous loyalty to the Emperor and the inability of any Inquisitor to find evidence supporting the claims of unusually high standing troop numbers has spared the Black Templars from further revelation of their true numbers. However, this has not prevented the Inquisition from trying to reveal the hidden size of the Black Templars. First Founding Chapters The First Founding of the Space Marine Legions, also originally called the Legiones Astartes, occurred in the late 30th Millennium after the end of the Age of Strife and the Unification Wars that founded the Imperium of Man on Terra. Eighteen known Space Marine Legions were created from the gene-seed of the 18 known Primarchs engineered by the Emperor of Mankind from His own genetic code in His gene-laboratories in the Imperial Palace on Terra beneath the Himalazian (Himalayan) Mountains. In spite of the fact that the Primarchs were separated from the Emperor of Mankind through the mysterious actions of the Ruinous Powers of Chaos and scattered through the Warp across the galaxy, He managed to keep a small sample of each Primarch's gene-seed, and used this genetic material to create the first Space Marines by further genetically enhancing His own elite, Terran-born soldiers. With each Primarch the Emperor re-discovered during the Great Crusade, He gave command of the Space Marine Legion created from their genetic material back to them. Each Primarch then set up their Legion's headquarters on his homeworld, from which they also recruited new Space Marines into the Legion. Two other Legions, the IInd Legion and the XIth Legion and their Primarchs, were created by the Emperor, but nothing is known of what became of these Legions and their Primarchs and all data pertaining to them has been deleted from current Imperial records. Ist Legion (Dark Angels) The Dark Angels are considered amongst the most powerful and secretive of the Loyalist Space Marine Chapters. The Dark Angels were the first of the Emperor's Space Marine Legions, and in their earliest incarnation fought as the personal army of the Master of Humanity in the dawning years of the Great Crusade and in the shadowed campaigns that preceded it. As the prototype of what were to become the Legiones Astartes, they served both as the template for the more specialised Legions that were to come after them and a standard by which these successors would be measured. Once the most numerous and powerful of the Space Marine Legions, their numbers would be depleted and primacy ended by decades of savage warfare, particularly in the wars of the Rangdan Xenocides, one of the most apocalyptic campaigns of the Great Crusade. The scars of these battles would change them, as would their reunification with their Primarch Lion El'Jonson and the introduction of fresh blood from his adopted world of Caliban, a Death World dominated by warlike, feudal society of techno-barbarians. When the Dark Angels do undertake joint operations alongside other Chapters, it is quite common for them to do so with others amongst the so-called "Unforgiven" -- the Successors of the original Dark Angels Legion. The Successors of the Legion maintain especially close relations, their officers all being members of the Inner Circle. Through the machinations of the Unforgiven’s Inner Circle, its members are eternally vigilant, never resting in the hunt for the Fallen -- those Renegade Space Marines who followed the First Legion's second-in-command, Luther, into damnation when they split off from the Dark Angels Space Marine Legion ten-thousand Terran years ago in the aftermath of the Horus Heresy. Vth Legion (White Scars) The White Scars re a Loyalist Space Marine Chapter and one of the First Founding Legions of the Adeptus Astartes. The Primarch of the White Scars was the mighty Jaghatai Khan. Known and feared throughout the Imperium of Man for their highly mobile way of war, the White Scars are considered the masters of the lightning strike and hit-and-run attack and are particularly adapted to the use of the Astartes Assault Bike as their mechanical steeds and their forces contain an unusually large number of Bike Squads compared to other Chapters. Bearing the ritual scars of bravery, these fierce warriors fight with all the tribal savagery that define the fierce steppe nomads of their homeworld Mundus Planus, bringing swift death to all of the enemies of the Imperium. If you create a Chapter from the White Scars, keep in mind they many of these Chapter are aggressive and savage in nature, and have a tendency to compete with their forebears for glory. VIth Legion (Space Wolves) The Space Wolves, known in their own dialect of Juvjk as the Vlka Fenryka or "Wolves of Fenris", are one of the original 20 First Founding Space Marine Legions, and were once led by their famed Primarch, Leman Russ. Once the VIth Legion of Astartes raised by the Emperor at the dawn of the Great Crusade, the Space Wolves are renowned for their anti-authoritarian ways and their embrace of their homeworld Fenris' savage barbarian culture as well as their extreme deviation from the Codex Astartes in the Chapter's organisation. After the Horus Heresy and the resultant Second Founding reforms of the Adeptus Astartes, the Space Wolves Legion was divided into two Chapters: the new Space Wolves Chapter, which was not compliant with the dictates of the Codex Astartes and retained the name of its parent Legion, and the second Chapter which took the name of the Wolf Brothers. The Wolf Brothers suffered from rampant mutation of their gene-seed not long after their Founding and were later disbanded. The Space Wolves shelved their plans to create any further Successor Chapters after the disastrous failure of their previous attempt, but in the 32nd Millennium, a Wolf Priest named Thrar "Wyrmblade" Hraldir believed he was close to a breakthrough. Hraldir had come closer than any other since the time of the Emperor Himself at understanding the genetic nature of the Canis Helix. He came close to figuring out how to reproduce the gene-seed of the Space Wolves without any of its inherent flaws. The Space Wolves' dream of emulating the Ultramarines, Imperial Fists and the other First Founding Chapters in the creation of a legion of Successors seemed close at hand. But unknown to the Space Wolves, their ambitions was also known to their ancient enemy, the Daemon Primarch Magnus the Red of the traitorous Thousand Sons Legion. After the invasion of their icy death world of Fenris, the First Battle of the Fang occurred between the two rival forces. During the height of the invasion, the Thousand Sons breached the Space Wolves formidable fortress-monastery, known as the Fang, and Magnus the Red personally destroyed the Space Wolves' gene-laboratories within. Irreplaceable equipment, some of it dating back to the days of the Unification on Terra, had been entirely devastated, and priceless inner mechanics were now nothing more than useless wreckage. During the Daemon Primarch's rampage in The Fang's fleshchambers he was confronted by Wolf Priest Hraldir. Though the valiant Space Wolf faced the Primarch, he proved no match for the might of one of the sons of the Emperor, and was slain. With his death, there were none left alive within the Chapter who understood his work, and the necessary genetic alteration equipment had been utterly destroyed. After this, the Space Wolves would forever remain alone, the sole inheritors of the legacy of Leman Russ. VIIth Legion (Imperial Fists) IXth Legion (Blood Angels) Xth Legion (Iron Hands) XIIIth Legion (Ultramarines) XVIIIth Legion (Salamanders) XIXth Legion (Raven Guard) Lost Legions Foundings New Space Marine Chapters are not created piecemeal as required by the Imperium of Man's strategic needs, but rather in deliberate groupings called "Foundings." The process by which a new Founding's creation is approved by the Imperial government is mysterious and arcane, subject to decades or even centuries of planning before it is announced. It is only by an edict of the High Lords of Terra that such an undertaking as the creation of new Chapters can be instigated, for it requires the cooperation and mobilisation of countless divisions within the Imperium's monolithic and vast governmental organisations. Establishing new Astartes Chapters on an individual basis is nigh impossible (with the sole exceptions of the Sons of Medusa Chapter and the Steel Confessors) -- the mobilisation of such vast resources is beyond the ability of any single segment of the Imperium. In the more than 10,000 standard years that have passed since the First Founding of the 20 original Space Marine Legions by the Emperor of Mankind, there have been 25 subsequent Foundings of new Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes; with the most recent, the 26th Founding, occurring in the year 738.M41, approximately 250 years before the current year, which in the Warhammer 40K universe, is 999.M41. Category:Guide Space Marine Chapters category Category:Space Marines